Countdown To The Mother: This HIMYM Episode Was Useless Because It Ignored Ted’s Future

Vulture accurately summed up season 8 of How I Met Your Mother thus far in their recap last week: Because the writers are waiting to hear whether or not they get one more year, every episode so far has been a throwaway. (With the exception of the brief glimpse of The Mother we saw in the season premiere.) Watching them stall is so frustrating, especially when we get forgettable episodes like 8×04 “Who Wants To Be A Godparent?”

In short: Marshall and Lily need to appoint a godparent for little Marvin, and the only reasonable way is to construct a huge game show in their living room to determine how Ted, Robin, and Barney would respond to situations like telling Marvin his parents have died in a horrible way (thus putting him in one of their care), the “birds and the bees” talk, and tackling the issue of Santa and the Tooth Fairy. Over the course of this tedious game, Marshall and Lily realize that for almost half a year they haven’t been involved in their friends’ lives, and so at the end they decide to make all three of them joint godparents.

The middle portion, with the titular game, could’ve been a lot funnier. Last week I referenced Marshgammon, and let’s not forget the brilliant Chinese Deal or No Deal game from the Atlantic City episode. The gang’s responses were all predictable: Barney would usher thirteen-year-old Marvin into manhood by taking him to Amsterdam; Ted would use the dinosaur puppet Professor Infosaurus to talk (or rap) his way through any awkward conversation; and Robin uses the game to cry about her issues with her own dad.

But what most frustrated me about each person’s answers was that they all described futures that don’t exist. Look, we know that Robin and Barney get married. Some fan theories hold that Barney is dead in the future; whether or not that’s the case, if the Stinsons were the ones to take care of Marvin, their choices would be a lot different. Hedonism wouldn’t be Barney’s first go-to, neither would getting back at Robin’s dad.

The same goes for Ted! At the end of 7×20 “Trilogy Time,” Ted tells his kids that by 2015 not only has he met The Mother, but she’s given birth to his daughter. In these scenarios, Marvin is anywhere from 8 to 13, which means they’re set in 2020-2025. Ted’s kids would both be just a few years younger than Marvin, so it wouldn’t be just lonely old Ted crying about some girl who wouldn’t call him back. In fact, if Marshall and Lily had died, poor Marvin would be stuck on the couch with his cousins hearing the endless story of how Ted eventually met The Mother.

I don’t know why, but this disparity really rubbed me the wrong way and made it almost impossible to enjoy the middle part of the episode. Now, we all know that HIMYM is a show about unreliable storytellers, Ted above all: He often forgets or omits details, so technically it makes sense that he, Barney, and Robin would be envisioning their futures with Marvin compared to the lives they’re living now. I just wish the writers could’ve found some tricky way to show us the characters’ canon futures — married, with kids and different jobs — and work Marvin into them as the hypothetical.

To add insult to injury, we did get a brief look ahead to 2030, where Ted tries to entice his kids with Professor Infosaurus. The thing is, it’s clear that it’s footage from back when they shot all of Lyndsy Fonseca and David Henrie‘s parts circa 2005, with the footage of Josh Radnor waving around the puppet added through CGI. (Because I refuse to believe that the writers planned that lame joke eight years ago.) It was just bad editing and another reminder that we’re no closer to meeting The Mother.

Next week’s episode “The Autumn of Break-Ups” gives me hope that we’ll finally start to move forward, as Ted and Victoria will be seriously evaluating their relationship and he will eventually realize that she’s not The One. It should be noted that we went through yet another episode without seeing hide nor hair of this woman Ted supposedly loves.

uh … we DID see victoria (very briefly yes … and looking thin – she looked better before) talking to ted about how her dad made a joke about ted paying for her failed wedding … and at the end of the episode he said the dad and him worked out a payment plan … stupid, stupid ted!!

nataliecrush

Yes, you’re right! But it was more of a flashback than her actually having any agency in the episode, you know? Same with Nick.

And yeah, wtf is up with Ted being willing to pay $70K? Victoria’s the one who ditched her own wedding.

ann

i guess it could be seemed as a flashback … maybe victoria & nick are like those people at the oscars, seatfillers, you know!?! they’re just there to “fill out” the group, and “move the story” along, hence the upcoming ep. of break-ups?!
and yeah … in what universe does someone pay for someone else’s ditched wedding!?!? sigh …

nataliecrush

“Seatfillers” is an apt word for them, yeah! I’ve read quotes from the creators where they say that Ted needs to get his closure with Victoria before he’s ready to meet The Mother. But my problem with last week’s episode, and this too, was that she may as well not be there. Except for Ted’s problems with her, we have no idea of what their relationship dynamic is like the second time around.

ann

exactly!!! and how is she dealing with robin being in ted’s life!?!? i mean after the cheating and then later when she tells him that he has to get rid of robin from his life!?!? i mean there was that whole section of season … i wanna say 6? 7??? where robin wasn’t really there (ok yeah, she was filming the avengers, but geez … continuity people!!) and did they kick klaus out!?!?

nataliecrush

So true! I remember wondering the same thing. I wonder if once Ted and Victoria break up, we’ll do some flashback and find out they were constantly arguing about the Robin thing. (You know, some creative storytelling like in “Something Blue” where we find out that Robin and Ted had broken up two weeks prior.)

Also, I can’t believe it took me this long to connect the dots that they briefly wrote Robin out of the show so we could film Avengers. DUH.

martiney05

Haven’t watched this season yet. Is it worth it?

nataliecrush

Ehhh. Are you a fan of the show? Because if so, I say yeah, stick with it through the end. We know that Robin Sparkles is coming back soon, and any lackluster plots in the present are mitigated by all the flash-forwards.

Plus, you can join the discussion here! I post these “Countdown to the Mother” recaps every Tuesday morning.